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A. INTUC Policy on HIV/AIDS & STIs: Prevention, Control,
Care & Support
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Preamble
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Access to information
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Support for Programmes
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Partnerships
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Role of Employers, Government and
other members of Civil Society
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HIV Antibody Screening
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Protection of the Employee Tenure
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Benefits
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Responsibility of the Workers infected
with HIV/AIDS/STIs
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Recognition of INTUC Responsibility
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Committee of INTUC on HIV/AIDS/STIs
B. HIV/AIDS: Polices
and programmes in India
A.
INTUC Policy on HIV/AIDS & STIs: Prevention,
Control, Care & Support
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Preamble
INTUC expresses its deep concern at the massive human
suffering caused by the HIV/AIDS pandemic and the failure to
date to check and reverse its growth due in large part to
the lack of political will of governments. It commits the
INTUC to work for strong and effective action to prevent,
control and ultimately eradicate HIV and AIDS. Complementary
action, including anti-discriminatory measures, must be
taken to expand prevention, voluntary confidential testing
and counseling, assistance to children (especially HIV
orphans) and care, support and treatment for those who are
HIV positive, their families and the communities in which
they live. Trade Unions more particularly an organisation of
INTUC's stature have a role to play in all fields in
confronting this immense global public health catastrophe.
The crisis caused by HIV and AIDS continues to spiral out of
control. Many of those at risk of infection cannot obtain
even the most basic information about HIV and AIDS. The
number of people with the HIV virus is now estimated to
stand at more than 37.8 million people worldwide.
HIV/AIDS attacks the most productive segment of society and
is reversing decades of development gains of whole
societies.
INTUC is aware of the varied forms of discrimination and
victimisation of workers suffering from HIV and AIDS,
including many cases of workers being discriminated against
the social protection and retirement benefits due to their
HIV status. Trade Unions must ensure that national
legislation prevents and penalises employers to adopt
policies for the management of HIV/AIDS in the workplace, in
collaboration with trade unions. At the centre of such
workplace policies should be measures to combat
discrimination, to encourage awareness, and to provide
treatment for workers across all occupations.
INTUC is convinced that the workplace is a key battleground
in the struggle against the pandemic and that all actors in
the world of work share in their respective capacities a key
responsibility as a result. INTUC therefore instructs all
its Pradesh Branches, Industrial Federations and affiliates
to support, involve and actively initiate and participate in
the following activities: Prevention and Control of
HIV/AIDS/STIs.
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Access to information
All workers and their families shall have access to adequate
and updated information, health and counseling and education
programmes on HIV/AIDS/STIs as well as to support services
and referrals.
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Support for Programmes
Programmes on HIV/AIDS/STIs for workers and their families
shall be supported by all INTUC Pradesh Branches and
Industrial Federations and Affiliates through the
mobilization of its relevant committees. In recognition of
December 1 as World AIDS Day, INTUC shall initiate and
participate in relevant activities for its observance.
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Partnerships
INTUC shall establish close working partnership among
employers groups, government, non-government organizations
and research institutions for funding, coordination and
technical support. Actual program implementation shall be
undertaken by INTUC and/or its affiliates.
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Role of Employers, Government and other
members of Civil Society
Employers should endeavor to allocate funds and provide
support for the implementation and sustainability of
plant-level HIV/AIDS/STIs prevention and control programmes.
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Protection of Workers' rights & dignity of persons living
with HIV/A!DS/STIs
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For
persons applying for employment
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Mandatory testing for HIV antibody shall be prohibited for
employees
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Workers with HIV/AIDS/STIs shall be entitled to the same
rights and
opportunities as other employees.
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HIV Antibody Screening
No mandatory HIV testing shall be done. Antibody testing
shall be on a voluntary basis with pre and post counseling
that guarantees anonymity. Confidentiality of Records:
Results of HIV antibody test and other employee health
records shall be treated with utmost confidentiality
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Protection of the Employee Tenure
INTUC shall uphold the security of the employment of worker
with HIV/AIDS/STIs. They shall be allowed to work as long as
they are physically fit and medically cleared to do so. They
shall, likewise, be protected from stigma and discrimination
by co-workers and employers as well as from demotion and
termination by the latter. Workers with HIV/AIDS/STIs shall
also have the right to a safe and healthy working
environment and reasonable change in working arrangement
when needed.
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Benefits
INTUC shall endeavor to establish HIV/AIDS/STIs funds and/or
endowments to assist/support workers with HIV/AIDS and STIs.
It shall ensure that workers with HIV/AIDS/STIs be entitled
to the same benefits as provided for by the law and by other
employers. Workers whose jobs are considered high-risk to
infection through needle prick or exposure to blood and
other blood products shall be provided with special
protection and additional compensation. Universal precaution
shall always be observed and practices in the workplace.
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Responsibility of the Workers infected with
HIV/AIDS/STIs
Workers with HIV/AIDS/STIs shall be responsible for
maintaining a lifestyle that will control and prevent the
spread of the infection.
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Recognition of INTUC Responsibility
INTUC Affiliates shall negotiate for provisions in all CBA
contracts that support HIV/AIDS/STIs initiatives including,
but not limited to the "time off with pay" for worker's
participation in the HIV/AIDS/STIs programmes and
activities.
INTUC shall develop an appropriate and gender sensitive
information, education, communication and behaviour change
campaign on the control and prevention of HIV/AIDS/STIs.
INTUC shall endorse and establish mechanisms for the
integration of the HIV/AIDS/STIs preventon programmes in
existing Family Welfare Programmes and/or other Health
Promotion Programmes in the Workplace.
INTUC shall call upon its affiliates to enter into
negotiators with employers to agree an explicit policy of
non-discrimination against people who have or are suspected
of having HIV/AIDS, the establishment of a comprehensive
education program designed to ensure that workers are fully
informed about HIV and AIDS and support those members who
suffer discrimination at work as a result of HIV infection,
or are suspected of having AIDS or HIV, who require
assistance from their trade unions.
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Committee of INTUC on HIV/AIDS/STIs
The Sub-Committee established to implement and coordinate
nationwide programmes on HIV/AIDS/STIs composed of
representatives coming from different Pradesh Branches &
Industrial Federation of INTUC should meet regularly and
give feed back to the Secretary and Jt. Secretary of the
Sub-Committee assigned to coordinate and monitor the
integration and implementation of the HIV/AIDS/STIs
Prevention Programmes in Workplace.
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B. POLICIES ON HIV/AIDS:
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 National
AIDS Prevention and Control Policy of NACO:
Soon after reporting of the first few HIV/AIDS cases in
India in 1986, the Central Government recognised the
seriousness of the problem and took a series of
important measures to tackle the epidemic. Government of
India initiated steps and started pilot screening of
high risk population. A high-powered National AIDS
Committee was constituted in 1986 itself and a National
AIDS Control Programme was launched in year 1987. In
1992, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
established NACO to manage a program of HIV/AIDS
prevention activities. That same year, the government
launched a Five-Year Strategic Plan (1992-1997) for
HIV/AIDS prevention under the first phase National AIDS
Control Project. The project, which closed in 1999,
aimed at expanding preventative activities to control
HIV transmission and building national and state level
capacity to cope with AIDS. The Phase II of the National
AIDS Control Programme (1999-2004) has become effective
from 9th November, 1999. The objective of the NACO'
National AIDS Prevention and Control Policy is to
prevent the epidemic from spreading further and to
reduce the impact of the epidemic not only upon the
infected persons but also upon the health and
socio-economic status of the general population at all
levels. The policy envisages effective containment of
the infection levels of HIV/AIDS in the general
population in order to achieve zero-level of new
infections by 2007.
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The
National Health Policy,
1983 of the Department of Health, Ministry of Health and
Family Welfare, Government of India has acknowledged
HIV/AIDS as a new and extremely virulent communicable
disease that has emerged on the health scene since the
declaration of the policy. The policy has further
recognised that there is no existing therapeutic cure or
vaccine for this infection, the disease constitutes a
serious threat, not merely to public health but to
economic development in the country. The National Health
Policy, 2002, the latest health policy of the Government
of India, gives priority to the containment of HIV/AIDS
infection and has set a target of achieving zero level
growth of HIV/AIDS by 2007. The Policy focuses on
initiatives for disseminating to the citizenry, public
health-related information and the IEC initiatives are
adopted for disseminating curative guidelines as well as
to bring about a behavioural change to prevent HIV/AIDS
in the country.
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Existing strategies to
address HIV/AIDS:
The national AIDS control policy principally aims at
the following strategy for prevention and control of the
disease: -
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Prevention of further spread of the disease by
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Making the people
aware of its implications and provide them with
the necessary tools for protecting themselves.
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Controlling STDs
among vulnerable sections together with
promotion of condom use as a preventive measure
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Ensuring
availability of safe blood and blood products
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Reinforcing the
traditional Indian moral values among youth and
other impressionable groups of population.
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To create an enabling
socio-economic environment so that all sections of
population can protect themselves from the infection
and families and communities can provide care and
support to people living with HIV/AIDS.
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Improving services
for the care of people living with AIDS in times of
sickness both in hospitals and at homes through
community healthcare.
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The programme
is decentralised from the State AIDS Cell to the field
level. It has identified various target groups both
primary and secondary stakeholders for interventions.
These include commercial sex workers, MSM (men having
sex with men) truckers, migrant labourers, industrial
labourers, prison inmates, youth and adolescent groups,
and tribals.
Greater emphasis has been placed on targeted
interventions for high-risk groups, preventive
interventions among the general population, and
involvement of NGOs and other sectors and line
departments, such as education and police.
The basic purpose of the targeted intervention (TI)
programme is to reduce the rate of transmission among
the vulnerable population. One of the ways of
controlling the disease from further spread is to carry
out direct intervention programmes among these groups
through multi-pronged strategies, beginning from
behaviour change communications (BCC), counselling,
providing healthcare support, treatment for STDs and
creating an enabling environment that will facilitate
behaviour change.
Since most of these groups are marginalised both
socially and economically, it is not possible to access
them through conventional government services. NGOs,
Community-based Organizations (CBOs) and other
appropriate agencies work by developing a peer-based
approach to enable and sustain behaviour change.
There are two basic components of TI: one it addresses
the primary stakeholders and core transmitters and
secondly it addresses the bridge population associated
with the former.
For the primary core group, behavioural change
communications (BCC) is provided, which includes
counselling, condom promotion including condom use by
demonstration, STD treatment, one-to-one interaction and
one-to-group interactions, group meetings etc. The
secondary component of TI is Enabling Environment where
Information, Education and Communication (IEC) material
is distributed to create awareness among the bridging
population.
Lastly capacity-building measures are undertaken for
outreach staff and peer educators on a periodic basis.
Besides the government 's response there are many
Non-government agencies working in different parts of
the country for awareness and prevention of HIV/AIDS and
to provide care and support to people living with
HIV/AIDS (PLWHA) with the help of multilateral and/or
bilateral donor agencies.
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